Unistats is a website which brings together authoritative, official information in one place, in a way that is not available on any other website to help potential students, their advisers and parents to make college and university comparisons. In this way, Unistats is different to league tables, for example those that are found on the Guardian, Times and Sunday Times websites. The information is provided by HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the National Student Survey (run by HEFCE - Higher Education Funding Council for England ). It includes information on the following. HEFCE: • National Student Survey - feedback and satisfaction ratings from final year undergraduates on the quality of their courses HESA - for higher education (HE) at Higher Education Institutions and indirectly funded HE students at Further Education Colleges • Student data - entry qualifications and UCAS tariff points, progression and achievement. • Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) data - destinations of leavers, job categories and job types. • Context statistics - student domicile, age, level of study, gender, study mode. LSC - for directly funded HE students in Further Education Colleges in England • Student data - entry qualifications and achievements. • Context Statistics - student domicile, age, level of study, gender, study mode
Unistats enables you to search, review and compare official information regarding subjects and universities/colleges. It includes what over 220,000 students felt about the quality of their higher education experience which is the results from the National Student Survey.
What year does the information relate to? [Back to top]
The information from the National Student Survey relates to the survey that took place earlier this year i.e. 2009. Generally, the data from HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) and the LSC (Learning and Skills Council) relates to the academic year that started in 2007 and ended in 2008. However, in the progression sub-set of data, the 'dormant' section relates to the academic year that started in 2006 and ended in 2007.
A 'commentary' is additional information provided directly by universities and colleges to complement the statistical information provided by HESA , the LSC and the National Student Survey.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) owns the Unistats website on behalf of all the Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK. This includes the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) in Northern Ireland and the Scottish Funding Council. UCAS manage the project on HEFCE's behalf and Hotcourses Ltd developed the technical aspects.
The National Student Survey is an annual survey which gives students the chance to have their say about what they liked and didn't like about their student learning experience during their time in higher education. You can use this student satisfaction feedback, shown on Unistats, to carry out college and university comparisons. Statements are put to students who then rate their university/college and subject against these, from 'definitely disagree' to 'definitely agree', on a five point scale. The groups of statements cover topics such as: • The teaching on my course • Assessment and feedback • Academic support • Organisation and management • Learning resources • Personal development
The National Student Survey is organised by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and is undertaken on their behalf by Ipsos MORI.
Where can I find out more information about the National Student Survey? [Back to top]
You can find out more information by visiting the National Student Survey site at www.thestudentsurvey.com.
Where can I find a more detailed guide to the data available on Unistats? [Back to top]
A Unistats Data Guide is available to download, which will provide further details about the statistics shown on this website and the statistical data included within the spreadsheets which are available via the 'Download data' section.
I have a complaint/query about the site, whom do I contact? [Back to top]
If you have any feedback about the site, or queries that are not covered by these Frequently Asked Questions or the Unistats Data Guide, please contact us at unistatsfeedback@ucas.ac.uk.
Finding information
Why can't I find a course that I know exists? [Back to top]
The Unistats site contains information about subject areas rather than specific courses and therefore you will not currently be able to find course specific information. We will be collecting information at course level in the future and the site will be updated when this becomes available. If a subject area is new to the university or college that you are interested in, information about that subject might not be available yet, for us to display. An alternative way of searching is to use the Subject A-Z function. It displays the subjects in a tree hierarchy with the main subject areas listed and then the subjects that fall under each of these main headings (up to 3 levels available where relevant). Selecting any heading will provide information at that level if available or at a higher level if not.
Where can I find out information about joint degrees? [Back to top]
The Unistats site shows information about subject areas rather than specific courses. Therefore information about each subject that makes up the joint degree can be found by searching for the specific subjects individually. For example, for a 'Mathematics and Geography' joint degree, you should search for 'Mathematics' and 'Geography' separately.
Where can I find a complete list of courses available? [Back to top]
UCAS provides a list of all courses at universities and colleges in the UK that use its admissions service. To find out more visit www.ucas.com. The British Council also provides a complete listing of courses at universities and colleges in the UK via its website at www.educationuk.org.
Why can't I see some of the information about the subject that I'm interested in? [Back to top]
There are several different reasons as to why we might not be able to show information. a) Not enough data We only show data where it is robust, which means that you can be more confident that the information is a realistic reflection of the actual situation. For the National Student Survey results we show the information where at least 23 students have returned the questionnaire, and where at least half the students asked to take part have returned the questionnaire. For the information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), we only show the information if it relates to more than 22 and a half students, to ensure there is no risk that individual students could be identified and breach data protection principles. b) Not applicable There are some cases where a section of information is not relevant to the university or college that you are viewing information about. c) Not taking part Some universities and colleges in Scotland do not participate in the National Student Survey and in these cases you will see the words 'Not taking part'. d) Data removed In a very small number of cases we may have discovered that data is found to be inaccurate and it has therefore been removed from the site to ensure it is not misleading.
Why is some of the data shown for two years rather than one? [Back to top]
We aim to show as much information as possible, relating to the most recent year of collection. Sometimes, we are not able to show you information for a single year as it is not robust enough (see the FAQ above). However, in some of these cases, we have found that we can show you useful information if we combine the most recent year's data with the previous year's data.
Are Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Universities and Colleges included on the site? [Back to top]
Included on Unistats are the following institutions: a) All higher education universities and colleges in the UK that provide higher education courses b) All further education colleges in England that provide higher education courses c) Those universities and colleges that voluntarily take part in the National Student Survey.
Can I find out the number of students likely to be on my course on Unistats? [Back to top]
The number of students who are registered against a particular subject and university/college is shown on Unistats. It is found after the search results page, by selecting items to compare and clicking on the 'Student Breakdown' or 'Uni details' tabs.
Where can I find information about 'sandwich' course students? [Back to top]
Students who are studying 'sandwich' courses i.e. those that include a year in a work placement, are included in the information shown for 'full time' students.
Where can I find the external examiners reports? [Back to top]
You should approach the relevant institution(s) about the external examiners reports.
Where can I find previous years' data? [Back to top]
The previous years' data can be found in spreadsheet format on the Higher Education Funding Council for England's website (HEFCE) at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/nss/data/.
Where can I find the data current on the site, in spreadsheet format? [Back to top]
The current data shown on the site can be found via the link 'Download data' on the Unistats homepage. There are both individual institution datasets and datasets covering the whole of the sector for a particular type of data.
Information display
Why are the UCAS points on the site different from the entry requirements stated on the institution's website? [Back to top]
The UCAS points shown on Unistats are the actual number of UCAS points that a student had when starting that subject. These may differ from the entry requirements as that student may have had more, or less, UCAS points from their qualifications, than they actually needed to fulfil the entry requirements asked for by the institution.
What do the different levels of subjects refer to, for example Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3? [Back to top]
These are the different subject levels in the subject hierarchy that Unistats uses to display information. It is based on the JACS subject hierarchy that UCAS and HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) use. Level 1 is the highest and includes very broad groupings of subjects. Level 3 is the lowest that is currently shown on the site, and includes more specific subjects.
What is '% Graduate Jobs after 6 months'? [Back to top]
'% Graduate jobs after 6 months' is a further breakdown from the overall figure of '% in employment'. Further information is given in the Glossary, however the definition given by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), is that certain Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes are classed as 'Graduate jobs' and others are classed as 'Non-graduate jobs'. The SOC codes are translated from the organisation details that graduates give when responding to a questionnaire sent out by their institution.
What does '% Student Satisfaction' mean? [Back to top]
'% Student Satisfaction' is the result from a particular question asked of students as part of the National Student Survey, which is 'Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course'. Specifically this is derived from those who definitely agreed or mostly agreed with this statement. It is not an average of the National Student Survey responses. Further details on the different aspects of the student experience can be found via the National Student Survey tab, by selecting one or more institution/subject combinations to view further details about. This information includes the total number of respondents for each question in the Survey.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) carries out external reviews of universities and colleges of higher education as part of its role to safeguard academic standards and quality in higher education. The reports form part of the framework that the QAA have set down to safeguard the public interest in sound standards of higher education qualifications and to inform and encourage continuous improvement in the management of the quality of higher education.
Why are some QAA reports available for some institutions and not for others? [Back to top]
QAA reviews operate on a six-year cycle and review reports are published on the QAA website as soon as they are available. Some types of reviews are no longer undertaken, for example 'subject reviews'. Some unis and colleges have only recently been given degree awarding powers and therefore may not yet have a report.
A 'shortlist' is a way of selecting information about universities/colleges and subjects that you are interested in, which you can refer back to. You can do this temporarily while you are on the site, so that when you leave the site it disappears, or you can save it to return to later.
You can add subjects and universities/colleges to your shortlist while you are on the site and they will remain there temporarily until you are no longer on the Unistats website. Alternatively, if you wish to save your shortlist so that you can come back to it at a later date, select 'save my shortlist' when you are on the Shortlist page. You will be taken to the log in page where you can register. Click on 'Register' and you will then be asked to enter your name and e-mail address in order to save your current shortlist. You will automatically be sent an e-mail to confirm that you have registered. This email will contain your username and password which you can use to log in at a later date.
After you have saved your shortlist you can, at any time, log back into your shortlist, make changes and re-save it. You can add new subject and university/college combinations, to compare with your current selections, by carrying out a new search, selecting those that you are interested in and clicking on 'add to shortlist'.
I have forgotten my password, what do I do? [Back to top]
If you have forgotten your password, click on 'Login' in the top right hand corner of any Unistats page. Click on 'Forgot password?' and you will be asked to enter your username. Your password will automatically be sent to your e-mail address.
After you have logged into your shortlist, scroll to the bottom of the page and select 'Change Password'. Enter your current password and then enter your new password. A confirmation message will appear.
I have forgotten my username, what do I do? [Back to top]
If you have forgotten your username, click on 'Login' in the top right hand corner of any Unistats page. Click on 'Forgot username?' and you will be asked to enter your e-mail address. Your username will automatically be sent to your e-mail address.
If you wish to unregister from the Unistats site, you can do this by logging in to your shortlist and selecting 'Unregister', which is located at the bottom of the shortlist page.